Dentistry as a profession owes its special status in Pakistan today because of Dr. Niazi's dedicated hard work and a personality that gave dentistry a dignity as a profession. His dental office became a state of the art center of excellence for dental work. He remained dentist to the head of states, important personalities and patients yet he always retained his humanity and the humbleness of his affectionate nature.
Dr. M.Z.K. Niazi was just and sympathetic towards all who worked with him whether they were colleagues or staff; he helped them to succeed in life, sometimes even at the cost of his own detriment. He would take satisfaction in later years when he recalled how well placed in life, in Pakistan and abroad, where all the dentists, dental assistants and dental technicians who had worked in office. His own children and family stand testimony to his fairness and goodness.
His beliefs and principles were put to test at highest of his career when he chose prison and exile for ten years rather than compromise on freedom, human rights and democracy. Dr. M.Z.K. Niazi had an unflinching faith in Pakistan and its people. He would quote the words of Quaid-e-Azam of "work, work and work". If his staff objected to some holidays he would skip in his office. His own life was one long struggle through which he persevered with patience and dignity.
After having experienced a richly varied life Dr. M.Z.K. Niazi became convinced, during the last years of his life, that a good sound education in keeping with the modern age and its demands, was the only way for Pakistan to change the overall stagnation of poverty. He felt that children from rural areas and the small towns of Pakistan were being neglected in the kind of education the "elite" were monopolizing in the large towns. In his opinion this was polarizing future generations.
Knowing full well how frail his health was after having had two heart by passes, he undertook the voluntary responsibility of building a quality English Medium School in his home town Mianwali. He was inspired by Dr. Zaheer Ahmad of Shifa International Hospital who, besides running the Shifa International Hospital is fully engaged in the Tameer-E -Millat Foundation which provides high quality education to children in rural areas through a network of 114 such schools.
Dr. M.Z.K. Niazi established the Mianwali Education Trust by which his school the Mianwali Education Trust School is maintained and run by a Board of Trustees. It has nearly 500 students and has progressed up to class 10 th . Dr. M.Z.K. Niazi had visualized it developing into a full fledged Post Graduate Institution in time to come. The school is imparting a quality education with good, fully equipped science labs and an IT center. The teachers of the school are a monument to Dr. M.Z.K. Niazi and their parents. They all belong to Mianwali and all are M.A's and MSc's. They are periodically sent for training to keep up with the best in their respective subjects.
The credit goes to the Government and Dr. Atta Ur Rehman, advisor for Higher Education to the Government of Pakistan, that a Gazetted Ordinance was passed empowering the Agha Khan university at Karachi to conduct examinations of from high quality education schools in Pakistan . The nomenclature "Secondary and Higher Secondary School Certificates" shall remain the same but the standard of instruction shall be comparable to the schools in the united kingdom . At present, these examinations are conducted abroad, the parents and students having to pay large sums in fees charged according to the rate of the foreign currency prevailing at that time. |